Foo Forum

My HP5L crapped out this morning... It's been chugging along for a lot of years, and even though I suspect some of the insides are made of plastic-coated cardboard, I'm thinking of repairing rather than replacing it.

I'm guessing the motor's gone or going... it sounds like it... so the repair might cost as much as some of the newer personal lasers, which are amazingly cheap.

In favor of repair... I'm thinking the newer printers are made of even lighter-weight plasticized cardboard than the 5L, and the technology probably hasn't gotten that much better. Also, on the side of keeping the 5L, everything's installed on my system... and the driver works with some old DOS software that I occasionally use, whereas the new printers might not.

If I did replace the 5L, PC magazine gives Editors' Choice to the Samsung ML-1430, which is so cheap it might be good to have around as a backup printer in any event.

I just want black and white home-office laser, mainly for text, letters, and checks, or for printing out web pages. I occasionally print on light weight card stock and envelopes, so a fairly straight paper path is helpful. The HP LJ1000 doesn't have a manual feed slot, so that's out.

It immediately looks as though the Brother will be cheaper, but its page life is shorter (toner price comparison becomes £50), plus Brother lasers usually need separate drums (budget £120 every 20000 pages). The Samsung toner includes the drum (like your old HP).

gsx - Thanks. I'm not a large volume printer, but wouldn't consider an ink jet because of the operating costs. The laser costs seem to all range in the 2.4 to 2.8 cents/page range, excluding maintenance. Right now, I'm only considering Samsung and HP. Lexmark gets bad press all around. I've been researching both by phone and on the web.

HP has a bewildering number of models, and their recent machines seem to lack manual feed slots. I can't believe how sketchy everybody's product specs are.

The HP 5L gets scathing comments on some of the more technical online printer forums because of its gravity feed... with some recommendations to buy an HP 1200 instead. Can't find out whether the 1200 has a manual feed slot, though.

A complete overhaul on the 5L is going to be somewhere close to $200. I hate to put money into it, but my system is set for it, so I won't be spending a lot of time getting it going.

A couple of repair guys suggested to me that I'd have trouble getting local techs to work on the Samsungs.

One intriguing possibility... one tech has an unused HP 220D for $450, more printer than I need, with not much info about it that I can find online. One has to wonder why it's been sitting around. Info I can find is all on European sites. It looks like an impressive machine at a bargain price; but it will take some time to set up, and, when all is said and done, I'll be spending an extra $300.

Does anyone know anything more about this printer, and about whether the LaserJet 1200 has a manual feed slot?